Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

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enduro2
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Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby enduro2 » Wed Jan 04, 2017 11:38 pm

Hi all,

I've been doing a bit of research about the hand tingling I get after 20km or so of riding. It's only present if I stay on the drops or hoods for some time but soon disappears if I move up the the crossbars (?) that run perpendicular to the top tube. The latter position doesn't give the best control of the bike mind you. Soon after moving to the drops, the tingle starts to appear again, starting at the little fingers and slowly moving up the rest of the fingers.

I have now found it is temporary Cyclists Palsy or a compressed ulnar nerve. It can be caused by a number of things including: improper grip, poor hood or drops alignment, too narrow handlebar alignment and other more distant anatomical misalignments or pathology.

http://www.physio-pedia.com/Cyclist's_palsy

Having gone through a few bike fit calculators, I'm pretty sure my bike is quite well set up, but I am open to suggestion.

Have you had a similar issue? What did you do to resolve it?
Last edited by enduro2 on Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby NhiTrac » Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:47 am

For me, I find that gloves with a lot of padding tends too give me tingly hands, usually only on the left.

I now wear really thin gloves with minimal padding.

I'd go no gloves (no tingling AT ALL) but like to be able to wipe away sweat etc.
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby find_bruce » Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:53 am

Interesting - I get pins & needles in my hands when riding the flat bar hybrid, but not the roadie, whether on the drops or flats. Appears to be a blood flow issue as shaking my hand quickly relieves it.

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RonK
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby RonK » Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:14 am

enduro2 wrote:I have now found it is temporary Cyclists Palsy or a compressed ulnar nerve. It can be caused by a number of things including: improper grip, poor hood or drops alignment, too narrow handlebar alignment and other more distant anatomical misalignments or pathology.
I can also be caused by poor cable routing under the bar tape which creates a pressure point, or simply by thin bar tape.

You can reroute the cables, you can use thicker tape, double tape, or bar gel under the tape.

Another option may be to get bars with flatter tops.
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silentC
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby silentC » Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:43 am

OP says they only get it on hoods or in drops and it disappears when moving to the tops.

I sometimes get it, mostly in the left hand, maybe one ride in 20. It goes away after a bit of a shake. I have yet to work out exactly what causes it but pretty sure it is wrist position rather than anything to do with the bike. Most likely from having the wrist too 'open' which puts pressure on the ulnar nerve.
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enduro2
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby enduro2 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:48 am

updated the OP so it has a link that's worth a read.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby silentC » Thu Jan 05, 2017 11:00 am

Yes have seen that. It appears to describe something that is more in the repetitive strain line of injury, rather than the very transient issue I get. In my other life, I play drums and sometimes I get the same thing after a few songs. It can become quite difficult to hold onto the stick because I lose all feeling and strength in the two smaller fingers of my right hand. By the second set it has gone away. Again I'm not quite sure what causes it. I put it down to not warming up properly.
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby RonK » Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:13 pm

Yes, I have had exactly the symptoms described - numbness in the fingers of my left hand - touring on a flat bar bike with Ergon grips.

It took nearly a month after the tour for sensation to fully return. A concern to me was the possibility of permanent nerve damage if I continued riding this bike.

The solution - I got rid of the flat bar touring bike. :wink:

I have also experienced loss of muscle function and have between unable to change gear on the odd occasion while doing long rides on a drop bar bike.

The cable routing was a problem because I sometimes put my hands on the corners of the bar and the cable was routed around the back of the bar. Since then I always route both cables along the front of the bar.
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby eeksll » Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:39 pm

I have experienced a bit of this as well. I moved my saddle back about 10mm, idea being to take some weight off my hands. It certainly seems to reduce the severity of the tinglining. Wouldn't say its gone gone, but I can stay in the drops much longer.

I never had a problem in the hoods.

edit: actually there was 1 ride i did about 100km mostly on hoods. Tingling never got that strong to worry about. But a few fingers on the tips felt a bit funny for a week after.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby enduro2 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 3:36 pm

Thankfully my sensation disappears a few minutes after changing position.

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Tim
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby Tim » Thu Jan 05, 2017 3:56 pm

eeksll wrote:I have experienced a bit of this as well. I moved my saddle back about 10mm, idea being to take some weight off my hands.
My experience too. Good advise. Sitting further behind the bottom bracket shifts weight from the hands to the backside.
Reduce vibration to the hands.
Lower tyre pressure and wider tyres.
My bike with steel forks creates least trouble. They flex plenty, carbon forks don't.
Change hand positions regularly.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby CKinnard » Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:54 pm

Your symptoms don't seem to fit your self diagnosis.
Compromise of the ulna nerve anywhere should not effect all fingers, only fingers 4 and 5 (and the hand on the same side).
If your other fingers (and/or thumb) are also going numb, then the problem is more likely compromise of multiple nerve roots as they exit the cervical spine.
I would imagine you have a stiff neck and may even be subject to regular headaches that go over the head and behind the eye.

In any case, strategies to consider are:
- strength and stretch work for the upper limbs.
push ups and pulls up are excellent.
- neck stretches.
various yoga postures and self stretching, physio mobilization to loosen the neck joints.
- I don't recommend moving your saddle back to unweight your hands. You want to shorten and/or raise the stem. The idea is to get more weight onto the saddle to get less through the hands, and you do that by moving your center of gravity towards the saddle (by sitting up higher and moving hands back). As the symptoms settle over time, you can gradually move the stem back to where it originally was.
- And as usual, these conditions are more easily exacerbated when you are poorly hydrated, eat a crap diet, and are overweight.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby enduro2 » Fri Jan 06, 2017 1:48 am

CKinnard: this is something that has cross my mind as I look at the physical information ... that the isssue in my case is seen in both hands, though slightly differently in each, but both none the less. Other riders have pointed out the sensation arrives in only one hand at a time.

I don't have headaches, nor poor diet or overweight as you mention but after a couple of decades in physical sport and a pretty severe whiplash injury that had quite a bit of chiropractic I have quite a loose set of vertebrae. This maybe something of value here. I'll start concerntrating on some appropriate upper body strength and see how that goes over the coming months.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby Farmer Elvis » Mon Jan 09, 2017 2:50 pm

I had a bad case of cycling palsy a few years ago, after riding 1200km in six days. The trick to preventing it is to have a good bike fit and regularly change your hand position on your bike.
My biggest problem was an incredibly sore backside after day 2 and three, I was putting more weight on my arms and hands

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby Baalzamon » Mon Jan 09, 2017 5:58 pm

Have you tried to roll your shoulders back. ie tingling happens, take hand off bar and roll shoulder backwards?
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby Strawburger » Mon Jan 09, 2017 9:41 pm

I'd say your saddle and bars are in the wrong position. But I'm no bike fit expert!

I don't get any back pain, shoulder pain or hand and wrist pain due to my bike being set up correctly.

Usually pain occurs when you're in a cramped or stretched out position. Get the saddle and bars in the right position will remove the pain.

Although online calculators get your fit almost there, I found getting someone who measures you up whilst riding the bike get the fit spot on.
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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby CKinnard » Mon Jan 09, 2017 10:09 pm

About set up.

1.
the saddle is set up to optimize pelvis/lower limb relationship with the pedals.
you don't adjust the saddle for the sake of your upper limbs.
the saddle position is all about lower limb dynamics. optimum leg speed, strength, endurance.
Once you set the saddle for lower limbs, you don't touch it again, but move onto setting the stem and bars.

2.
the stem and bars are ONLY set up for spine and upper limb comfort while striving for best aerodynamics.
it is a mistake to adjust the saddle for upper limb and neck comfort, at least for performance cycling.

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby Bendo » Sun Feb 05, 2017 10:50 pm

Tim wrote:Lower tyre pressure and wider tyres.
My bike with steel forks creates least trouble. They flex plenty, carbon forks don't.
Change hand positions regularly.
+1. I usually ride bikes with steel frame and forks. A bike shop lent me a new Focus aluminium-frame, flat-bar hybrid with 23mm tyres at 100psi and a very unforgiving saddle to get home on after a broken spoke on my own bike. The flat bar only offered one hand position. Ride was so harsh that sitting upright on the saddle to relieve the pain in my hands just transferred it all to my backside! I thought, "is this what people think is normal?" It was murder and I only rode 20km on it. Hands, arse, elbows: everything was tingling! b

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Re: Cyclist's Palsy/Tingling in Hands

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:27 am

It's one of three arms/hands related issues that forced me off the bike after nearly thirty years of injury free bike commuting.

I did contemplate moving from drops to flat bar. But because my riding was substantially on busy highways with minimal room where I needed to be able to keep an eye on what was happening behind me, I quickly decided against. It is far easier and safer on drops to watch the blind quarter.
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